Python Class - Get dictionary of class instance (dict and vars)

Python class instance has __dict__ method. We can get the dictionary of class instance attributes as follow.

class Employee:

    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def hello(self):
        print("I'm " + self.name + ".")


e = Employee('Bob', 43)
d = e.__dict__

print(d)
# {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 43}

e is an Employee instance whose name is Bob and age is 43. d is a dictionary of Bob's data (instance attributes).

Employee class has hello method but it is not contained in the dictionary d.

Another way to get dictionary

vars is a Python built-in function that returns instance attributes as dictionary.

class Employee:

    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def hello(self):
        print("I'm " + self.name + ".")


e = Employee('Bob', 43)
d = vars(e)

print(d)
# {'name': 'Bob', 'age': 43}

print(type(d))
# <class 'dict'>

Both can be used in Class inheritance

The next example shows class Book inherits class Product. book is a Book instance and what does __dict__ returns?

class Product:
    def __init__(self, price):
        self.price = price

    def is_expensive(self):
        if 10 < self.price:
            print('Expensive')
        else:
            print('Not Expensive')


class Book(Product):
    def __init__(self, price, page):
        super().__init__(price)
        self.page = page


book = Book(price=24, page=549)

d = book.__dict__
print(d)  # {'price': 24, 'page': 549}

v = vars(book)
print(v)  # {'price': 24, 'page': 549}

__dict__ and vars returns the same dictionary.

Class attributes are ignored by vars function

The above code shows vars returns instance attributes as dictionary but it ignores class attributes.

class Product:
    id = 7

    def __init__(self, price):
        self.price = price


class Book(Product):
    def __init__(self, price, page):
        super().__init__(price)
        self.page = page


book = Book(price=24, page=549)

print(book.id)  # 7
print(book.price)  # 24
print(book.page)  # 549

d = book.__dict__
print(d)  # {'price': 24, 'page': 549}

v = vars(book)
print(v)  # {'price': 24, 'page': 549}

book instance has id attribute and it's 7. But __dict__ and vars returns only price and page.

vars can return class itself

__dict__ and vars return Book.

class Product:
    id = 7

    def __init__(self, price):
        self.price = price


class Book(Product):
    def __init__(self, price, page):
        super().__init__(price)
        self.page = page


print(Book.id)  # 7

d = Book.__dict__
print(d)
# {'__module__': '__main__', '__init__': <function Book.__init__ at 0x11a239280>, '__doc__': None}

v = vars(Book)
print(v)
# {'__module__': '__main__', '__init__': <function Book.__init__ at 0x11a239280>, '__doc__': None}

id is a class attribute but __dict__ ignores the attribute.